The TurboGrafx-16 Mini is now available in the West. How many of the system’s Japanese games can you easily play? We’re here to help!
The post TurboGrafx-16 Mini: How English-Friendly Are Its PC Engine Games? appeared first on Siliconera.
Niantic outlined its efforts to work toward “sustainable, long-term change," and it includes Pokemon GO Fest 2020 ticket proceed donations.
The post Niantic’s Pokemon GO Fest 2020 Proceeds Will Go to Charity and Fund Black Gaming Creators appeared first on Siliconera.
Developer 11 Bit Studios has pulled back the veil on its mysterious third and final bit of paid DLC for superb post-apocalyptic city builder Frostpunk. What was once known only as Project TVADGYCGJR has now been renamed On The Edge, and it'll be out on Steam this summer.
On The Edge - which follows on from Frostpunk's pre-freeze prequel expansion The Last Autumn and its smaller-scale The Rifts DLC - resumes the grimly gripping city-building survival action some time after the Great Storm that caps the base game's main story.
It'll feature a brand-new story scenario - charting the tribulations of an expedition sent out from New London to explore after the Great Storm - as well as new mechanics for the Frostlands view, and new challenges associated with the expansion's "desolate" new map.
After the cancellation of most of what is traditionally considered E3 2020, there is a lot of uncertainty around what could be announced or shown this year. The PC Gaming Show is one of the very few showcases that is staying intact. With that being said, it is still anyone’s best guess what we could see, so here are five PC Gaming Show predictions you’ll hope we’re right about.
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten some really in-depth information on the Torchlight series.
Following the shuttering of the former developer, Runic Games, in 2017, and being recently renamed from Torchlight Frontiers, fans of the action-RPG series could use some good news.
Battlefield V developer Dice revealed the patch notes for the game’s summer update today, which will be the final content update for the title.
The summer update adds new content to the game such as two maps, nine weapons, six vehicles, five gadgets, and three types of grenades. The two new maps are Al Marj Encampment, an infantry-only map set in Libya, and “a redesigned and expanded” Provence that extends the map with farm land and the outskirts of the town.
The new weapons include a shotgun, light machine gun, two snipers, submachine gun, and a semi-automatic for specific classes, while all classes receive three new pistols. The new gadgets include a “pistol flamethrower” and the RMN 50 Grenade Launcher, while new grenades include the Firecracker and Demolition grenades.
Battlefield V players who login each day after the update drops will receive the new items as login rewards for the next few weeks, and will be available to purchase with Company Coin later in June for those who missed out.
Check out the full list of new additions and changes for the update, which goes live on Thursday, June 4 at 3 a.m ET for Xbox One, 4 a.m ET for PC, and 5 a.m ET for PlayStation 4.
Dice also released a statement over the current protests taking place in the United States alongside the patch notes:
Hey folks,
Last week, we set in motion our plans to deploy the Summer Update for Battlefield V.
We recognize that there are more important conversations taking place in the world today, so you haven’t seen us publish promotional material around the update this week, similar to how we have in the past on Battlefield V.
Today Bandai Namco released a trailer revealing Slightly Mad Studios’ Project Cars 3.
Update: the announcement from Bandai Namco and Slightly Mad Studios indeed came, revealing that the game is coming for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in Summer 2020.
Considering that no source from the studio or publisher Bandai Namco said a word, there is the possibility that the European branch of PlayStation leaked this before the official reveal.
In any case, the game will come this summer. For now, only PS4 has been announced as a platform, but it’s likely that it’ll also come fro PC and Xbox One, which will likely be confirmed when Bandai Namco and Slightly Mad make their own announcements.
We can glean a few more snippets of info from the description of the trailer.
“Get ready for Your Ultimate Driver Journey. Own, upgrade and customize hundreds of elite-brand road- and race-cars, personalize your racing hero, then race your way up from weekend warrior to racing legend in stunning global locations. Project CARS 3. Summer 2020 on PS4.”
We’ll keep you posted when the studio and the publisher announce further information.
A new Itch.io games bundle with up to 20 games is giving all of the money it earns to multiple important causes this week. From now until June 17, the Black Lives Support bundle will be available to purchase with all proceeds going to Black Lives Matter, the organization fighting anti-Black racism and police brutality, as well as the National Bail Fund Network, which is paying bail for those arrested while protesting nationwide. When you buy this bundle, 100% of your money is split equally between the two organizations, and you can donate more than the minimum, of course.
The Black Lives Matter bundle includes two levels of games, with 11 games unlocked for $20 and another nine games available for $40. The bundle includes a variety of indie games from creators on Itch.io, so if you're looking to donate this week, here's a great way to not only support the fight for racial equality but also a group of indie game developers.
The games in this bundle span a wide range of topics and genres, from Moon Hunter, a co-op action "personality test" RPG, to Herald, a choice-driven adventure game set during an alternate 19th century. It also includes Emily is Away Too, a fantastic visual novel that takes place entirely within a mid-2000s-era instant messaging chat. Another one of my favorites, Coffee Talk (which just released this year), is up for grabs too. Coffee Talk is set in an alternate-future Seattle where fantasy creatures like werewolves and vampires live among humans, and you'll play as a cafe owner who listens to their problems and watches relationships develop over a cup of coffee. It's a cozy sort of game, but it also touches on topics like racism, the struggles of interracial relationships, and even crunch within the games industry.
June is officially here, and for players in the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the start of summer in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Along with a new assortment of bugs and fish to catch, you can find a new type of crafting material called summer shells washed up on the beach in your town and on Mystery Islands.
Summer shells are a distinct blue color, and much like the cherry blossom petals you could collect in spring, they are used in crafting special seasonal DIY recipes. As before, these recipes will only be available for a limited time, from June to August (or December to February in the Southern Hemisphere). Acquiring them also relies quite a bit on chance, as you'll primarily need to shoot them down from balloons or find them washed up in bottles.
Since the summer shell recipes are only around for a brief period, you'll want to get your hands on them while you can. To help you out, we've rounded up all the summer shell DIY recipes we've found--along with the materials you need to craft them--below.
Continue Reading at GameSpotIt's June and love is in the air in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The 1.20 update laid the groundwork for the wedding season event, which allows you to decorate a happy couple's nuptials for special rewards. It will last through June 30, 2020, so you'll have a few weeks to take part in the festivities.
If you've met Harvey he'll call from Photopia suggesting you come on over. You can go to the Dodo Airport in your town and head to Harv's Island to begin the wedding festivities for Reese and Cyrus. The event centers around helping to decorate Harv's photo studio for the happy couple.
The event is simple enough--just listen to the theme of the day and make your photo decor match their wishes. You'll be rewarded with a special currency called "heart crystals" and sometimes they'll give you special wedding furniture. You can collect other pieces of wedding furniture throughout the event, and you can exchange the heart crystals you earn for even more themed furniture, decorations, and clothing items.
Continue Reading at GameSpotIn the recent State of Play presentation for The Last of Us Part II, there's a bit where returning protagonist Ellie sneaks up on a woman playing a PlayStation Vita, interrogates her at knifepoint, and then stabs her in the neck when she tries to retaliate. Ellie says something like "that was dumb" under her breath while wiping the blood off her switchblade.
I winced the first time I saw that scene during my own playthrough of the game, and I winced when I saw it again during the State of Play. Not just because I was bummed about the loss of a fellow PS Vita appreciator, and not just because the violence was so shocking and ruthless (I mean, I'm also playing a ton of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath now so a simple throat-stab is probably something I can handle). It's the way the kill was choreographed and framed to be so cold and understated that made it feel almost nauseating. The close-up, the gurgles, the way the camera lingers after the stab really made me squirm in my seat. They're really going to devote this much gory detail to the death of a super minor character? A big part of why it felt so uncomfortable is because it was an ice-cold move from Ellie, a character who I first knew and still kinda see in my mind as a young, relatively innocent teenager. But at this point in The Last of Us Part II, she's obviously not the same person--she's seen a lot of shit. And I mean a lot of shit.
Valorant launched out of its closed beta this week. With the arrival of update 1.0 comes a host of additions, adjustments, and some big changes--including the new agent Reyna, the new Ascent map, the new Spike Rush game mode, and the temporary removal of ranked Competitive mode. We have all the info on what's new in Valorant and the full version 1.0 patch notes below.
Reyna is Valorant's new agent. "Straight from the heart of Mexico," Reyna has a host of vampiric abilities and thrives on getting kills. Her abilities allow her to feed off downed enemies for health and temporary invulnerability, obscure enemy vision, and employ a deadly rapid fire mode that can recharge her "feeding" abilities, creating a potentially vicious cycle that rewards kill streaks. Read our story on Reyna joining Valorant for more on her specific abilities.
The new game mode Spike Rush has launched in an early "beta" state, offering shorter, quicker matches next to Valorant's more serious and lengthy default game mode. Spike Rush eliminates the buy phase, randomizes weapons, automatically recharges basic abilities per round, and offers a range of random "power-up" orbs to change things up as players, each equipped with their own Spike, fight to plant. In our Play For All interview with Riot, we learned more about the design decisions behind Spike Rush and why Team Deathmatch will have to wait.
If you got the chance to play Valorant during its closed beta period, you may have gotten some time in with an early version of its ranked system and Competitive mode. Loading up the newly launched Valorant to see that Competitive mode missing was probably a bit of a surprise--the only modes available to play at the moment are its default Unrated mode and the newly added Spike Rush. So when is ranked Valorant coming out? And why did Riot remove it in the first place?
Riot doesn't offer an official Valorant ranked release date, but you can expect its ranked system and Competitive mode to return in "a few patches" after launch, according to Riot's official blog. We don't know how long that will take, but Riot has been releasing patches at a fairly steady pace. We will keep you updated.
Riot removed Competitive mode and ranks from Valorant at launch to further improve on the system, but also to give players who didn't get into the beta a chance to learn the basics.
Continue Reading at GameSpotAfter launching on Xbox One and the Microsoft Store more than two years ago, Sea of Thieves is now available to download on Steam. Rare's swashbuckling launch on Valve's platform includes all content previously released in the game.
Sea of Thieves, hailed as Microsoft's most successful IP of the generation, has received a steady flow of content since it launched in March of 2018. That includes the Ships of Fortune update released last April that introduced a new emissary system, allowing players to carry out special diplomatic missions in-game.
The launch also includes the latest Sea of Thieves' update, Lost Treasures. It dropped on May 27 and includes a number of changes to the story elements in the game as well as Daily Bounties to ensure that you've always got coin on hand.
Continue Reading at GameSpotUpdate: Reyna is now available to play as of Valorant update 1.0. Her two basic abilities are Dismiss and Devour, which allow her to consume a downed enemy's "life force" to temporarily become invisible and invulnerable, and restore her health, respectively. Her signature ability Leer sends out a destructible orb that obscures the range of vision of any players that look at it. This ability can be deployed through walls and barriers, which makes it quite powerful. Her ultimate ability is Empress, which grants her rapid fire for a limited period of time, but resets the timer per kill. Getting a kill as Reyna also recharges her basic "feeding" abilities.
Original story follows...
Developer Riot Games has shown off the first post-launch character that will be added to Valorant. Reyna, a kill or be killed kind of Agent, has no definitive release date but will supposedly drop sometime around the game's June 2 launch.
Continue Reading at GameSpotWith a little more than two weeks to go until the highly-anticipated The Last of Us Part 2 hits PlayStation 4, Naughty Dog and PlayStation have shared a brand-new extended commercial for the game.
The spotlight, which is only about one minute long, shows Ellie serenading her love interest, Dina, by a campfire. The song, a brief acoustic rendition of "True Faith" by the synthpop band New Order, is interspersed with a scene of Ellie running from human pursuers. It's a much more sobering look at the journey Ellie will undertake throughout The Last Of Us Part 2 when compared to other trailers we've seen.
Naughty Dog has been much more vocal about The Last Of Us Part 2 in recent months, with the studio showing off 20 minutes of gameplay footage during a late-May State of Play livestream. We also had the opportunity to check the game out during a hands-on preview, where editor Edmond Tran said his experience was satisfyingly brutal and uncomfortable in the same breath.
Sweeney tells GameSpot that free games bring †tens of millions of new users†to the Epic Games Store while also increasing sales of a game on other storefronts. ...
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Kirk Scott, Nintendo of America's third-party developer and publisher relations manager, is stepping down from the role he's held since 2015 and departing Nintendo of America as a whole. ...
It may not be your ideal place to play, but plenty of Dead Cells fans have been waiting for the long-time-coming Android release. It's out today for $8.99 on Google Play with a range of mobile-centric tweaks.
Most notably, the Android version of Dead Cells has Bluetooth support if you're dead-set on a gamepad and multiple options if you're open to touch controls. There are two combat modes – Original and Auto-Hit – along with the ability to customize the button sizes and placements and swipe for dodge-rolls.
This is the full game in all its roguelike glory – with "no ads" and "no F2P" mechanics – and that's a beautiful sight. There are trade-offs, sure, but it sounds like the best-case scenario for a mobile port.
I can't wait to see someone pull off a five-cell run on Android. I'm over here stuck on BC1.
With just a trailer and no more fanfare, Bandai Namco and Slightly Mad Studios have revealed Project CARS 3. There are no press releases, no official news posts, no tweets -- only the trailer that's embedded above.
Project CARS made its name as a crowdfunded hardcore racing sim for the masses, and this first look doesn't really convey that intent. In a lot of ways, it's more Need for Speed than Project CARS, what with all the neon-lit nighttime racing and all. Early on, an Acura driver tries to murder a Mercedes-Benz driver on the open road; as an Acura owner, I'm willing to look past a little attempted vehicular manslaughter. Regardless of your interpretation of the law, it's not very Project CARS.
We'll find out if the third try stays true to its roots or gets homogenized a la all those other arcade-like street racers. Project CARS 3 launches this summer, which can only be a couple months away at most. According to GamesRadar+, it's coming to PC (via Steam), PS4, and Xbox One.
Space flight sim Elite Dangerous is set to expand next year with the release of the next significant update. While the game has confined players to their cockpits since it launched in 2014, Odyssey revolves around completing missions on foot rather than from behind the controls of a starship.
Ever feel like your dungeon crawling adventures are actually you imposing on the homes of those skeleton, ooze, and monster folks? That’s the angle that action platformer Skelattack takes, asking you to help recently deceased Skully defend the underworld from a bunch of human attackers. Skelattack is out now, with a new launch trailer to show off all the hopping, slashing, and trap-avoiding.
This boarding school puzzle game called The Academy cites its inspirations as both Harry Potter and Professor Layton, the latter, I assume because of puzzles. The former because, yeah those three faces certainly have a familiar dynamic, don’t they? Pine Studio have dropped a trailer to announce the game’s June 19th release date, so you’ve got just enough time to study up before the exam.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is a suped-up remaster of a hidden gem of a JRPG that came out on Wii but was unfortunately played by a small pool of people. Being one of those few people who played the game back in the day, I felt like it was necessary to dive back into the massive role-playing game and check out just how Shulk’s new face looks.
And after playing for a couple of hours, it turns out that not only do Shulk and his crew look fantastic (especially for a ported Wii game) but the environments and enemies have cleaned up well and the small but important QOL (quality of life) changes seem to overhaul the entire experience.
Now, let me be clear, it’s hard to say just what all of the changes are considering it’s been almost 10 years since I’ve played this game, but it’s easy to notice that the sidequests are easier to manage/complete, the battle system is made simple to understand with concise tutorials, and the characters don’t look like pieces of trash.
Exhibit A down below:
Exhibit B:
In the name of letting more important voices be heard, Game Informer is choosing to let much of our regular video and podcast content fall silent for the time being. Thank you for understanding.
A Square Enix Black Lives Matter statement included not only a message of support to the black community and protestors, but a monetary pledge.
The post Square Enix Pledges $250,000 and Employee Donation Matches to Black Lives Matter appeared first on Siliconera.
Compile Heart games VVVtunia and Mary Skelter Finale have been pushed back due to major events that affected their development schedules.
The post VVVtunia and Mary Skelter Finale Delayed to August and October appeared first on Siliconera.
DayZ and Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive has moved to quash recent reports claiming Chinese conglomerate Tencent had purchased a majority share of the studio.
News of the acquisition first surfaced in a story by tech industry website The Information, which reported that Tencent had acquired a 70-80% stake in Bohemia Interactive for around $260m USD, citing "a person familiar with the matter" as its source.
However, in a new statement released to press, a Bohemia Interactive spokesperson has refuted the website's claims. "The information in that article is incorrect," they said, "Tencent has not purchased a stake in Bohemia Interactive and it remains an independent studio."
Bloomberg takes aim at Take-Two Interactive for cancelling a contract with the new defunct studio Star Theory mid-development while simultaneously offering jobs at Take-Two to the game's entire team. ...
The next major Elite Dangerous expansion will put players in a position they've never been before: Upright, on two legs, walking about extraterrestrial planets.
In March 2019, Elite Dangerous developer Frontier Developments teased that the next major update would be "a defining moment in the history of the game." We now know the scope of that statement. The Odyssey expansion will introduce atmospheric landings and exploring on foot.
There's more, of course. Frontier also describes NPC mission-givers, encounters that range from stealth to "all-out combat" (from a first-person perspective), social hubs, and a deep customization system for weapons and armor.
In a way, it sort of sounds like the Dust 514 to EVE Online. But, we'll find out more about the nitty gritty of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey sometime down the road. It's currently expected to launch in early 2021.
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Announcement [Frontier Developments]
This week's deep dive into The Last of Us Part II takes aim at the world, and there are two divergent pictures that Naughty Dog paints. One is of the hopeless and oppressive world in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Seattle, and all the threats that are around every corner. The other is of a tranquil, at-ease community in Jackson, Wyoming.
Hear me out for a second: What if Ellie just stayed home, never left the safe harbor of Jackson, and went dancing every night? That's a quality of life improvement that's nigh immeasurable. Sounds pretty nice.
But, and this is no spoiler, she won't. She will leave the walls of Jackson, and she will indiscriminately murder everything that gets in her way. As narrative lead Halley Gross puts it "Ellie can never fully breathe when she experiences this trauma." Something awful could be around every single corner. There's no letting your guard down.
On the topic of indiscriminate murder, last week's State of Play depicted Ellie as an absolute killing machine. She even shanked a woman who was playing a Vita! That's at odds with the latest Last of Us Part II TV ad that makes her actions seem heavier. Ellie holds a gun, trembling at the resignation that she's going to have to use it to survive. Canonically, this commercial must come before she turns into John Rambo. "They drew first blood!"
DICE's final content update for Battlefield V is rolling out tomorrow, June 4, right one cue.
The Summer Update adds two maps – one of which, Al Marj Encampment, is all-new – plus nine weapons, six vehicles, five gadgets, and three grenades. The other map, Provence, "has been extended to include the farm land, and areas around the outskirts of town, bringing tanks into this battlefield on 64-player Conquest, and Breakthrough," according to Battlefield community manager Freeman.
"Both of these maps feature the U.S. and German armies as the two playable factions, with additional changes having also been made to Twisted Steel and Panzerstorm," he explained. "We'll be following up with a similar adjustment on Al Sundan later this month; in the interim this map won't feature in rotations while we make these changes. Twisted Steel and Panzerstorm will otherwise continue to operate as UK and German factions on Grand Operations and won't be adjusted in this mode."
Aside from the maps, here's a list of the new Summer Update content:
New Weapons:
- Sjögren Shotgun (Support)
- Chauchat (Support)
- M3 Infrared (Recon)
- K31/43 (Recon)
- Welgun (Medic)
- M1941 Johnson (Assault)
- PPK/PPK Suppressed (all classes)
- M1911 Suppressed (all classes)
- Welrod (all classes)
New Vehicles:
- A-20 bomber (U.S. Faction)
- P-70 Night Fighter (U.S. Faction)
- P-51D fighter plane (U.S. Faction)
- P-51K fighter plane (U.S. Faction)
- M8 Greyhound (U.S. Faction)
- Puma Armored Car (German Faction)
New Gadgets:
Fortnite’s next season, which was originally scheduled to launch on June 4 and then last week got delayed to June 11, has had its start date pushed back again in the face of ongoing unrest in the United States. The live event “The Device” will now arrive on June 15, followed by the beginning of Season 3 on June 17.
The effort to unionize game development took another step forward today, as the workers at strategy game publisher Paradox Interactive publicly announced that they’re securing a collective bargaining agreement with their company. The deal is expected to safeguard their existing benefits and make it easier to advocate…
Image: Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft via Polygon
Plus a pre-order discount on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
The Pokémon COmpany
Image: Epic Games